Deinococcus radiodurans (D. radiodurans) is one of the organisms having the highest radiation resistance known so far. The bacterium has a extremely high resistance to lethal doses of radiation ionizing, UV radiation and DNA damaging agents, and is capable of repairing a genome having hundreds DNA double-strand breaks caused by radiation ionizing without any mutation. There have been great interests in the scientific fields on its extraordinary radiation resistance and its repair mechanisms for DNA damage. These features are important for basic researches on DNA repair mechanisms and have potential application prospects in environmental protection, bioremediation, human health, biotechnology, or even exploration and development of the outer space. The institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) completed and published the whole genome sequence of D. radiodurans in 1999.
There has been no report in the art on any application using Deinococcus radiodurans in plants to improve salt tolerance and drought tolerance.